Unintended consequences

What a rich conference this has been. I had a lot of fun organizing my “punch at your own weight” thoughts on social media and philanthropy for a Wednesday panel and was immensely gratified at the response received. I’ll be writing up my remarks and offering a link to them.

For now, though, I would like to point you all at http://blog.guidestarinternational.org where I think you will find an intriguing example of how social media is not a tool but a dynamic process with all kinds of unintended and often wonderful consequences.This link takes you to the blog of Guidestar International with whom my own organization, TechSoup Global, has very recently combined.

The content I am pointing you at is our various combined staff’s summaries of many great sessions from the week (with more to come, so watch that space.)We asked our reporters to talk about the session and also to add their thoughts about implications for our combined organization.

So the first point I¹d make is that “content is (still) king”. I mean: you can use every widget and tool imaginable but if what you have to say is rubbish, it doesn’t matter. And we did get some great and very new ideas about what we should do as an organization.So please enjoy. Comment. Be in conversation with us.

And speaking of unintended consequences, a big shoutout to Anna Piotrovskaya E.D. Of The Dmitry Zimin <<Dynasty>> Foundation who has promised to introduce me to one of my literary idols, Boris Akunin, if I can get myself to Moscow, which I will. I mention this because this is the kind of accidental conversation you only have when you meet someone in person, preferably with a glass of wine in your hand, which reminds me that we should never get so infatuated with online tools that we don’t make the trouble to meet each other face to face.